DIY Boxes Advent Calendar with Free Printable

Are you looking for a cute and just simply awesome DIY advent calendar for this year? I got you covered!

This year I have decided to make each of my 3 kids their own advent calendars. This is the first one and is basically a printable box with the image of a tree when the boxes are combined.

I also made it so that when the day has lapsed that the box can be turn and the number “disappears”. This keeps the tree intact and the counting for the littler ones more logical.

This article contains affiliate links which means at no additional cost to you, I could receive a commission for my recommendations. More info.

How to make your DIY Box advent calendar

Firstly you will need to download the free printable (at the bottom of this post) and print them out on white stock paper. There are 28 pages.

Next make a cuppa hot stuff (tea, coffee or yummy hot chocolate) and get your scissors and glue stick.

On the printables you will notice faint outlines, cut along the edges to get the box template.

Next fold along the remaining lines and apply glue to the areas marked as “glue”.

I just LOVE that these boxes came out a decent size. Which means not only can I stick a bunch of chocolate in there I can totally put an entire mini toy into it too!!

I also added some shredded crepe paper to make it interesting when digging out those treasures!

Once your item is in the box you can add a small dab of glue to keep the lid closed. Obviously you want to make the box easy to open, no tearing, so that you can place it back to keep the image of the tree.

The best part of this free printable is that it it has 2 sides and once the day has come and gone you can just simple rotate the box to display the side without the numbers!

This also gives a good countdown overview for the younger kids by having the numbers “disappear”.

The empty boxes do stack well but I recommend that you use a pebble in the empty boxes to keep them weighted after opening just in case of some major bumping from the kids. (this happens to me all the time!)

Pin the free DIY Boxes Advent Calendar for later!

Also check out all the DIY ornaments we made last year for our tree! We landed up with an almost fully DIY decorated tree, it was tons of fun.

I just finished these today! It was a labour of love as like a pp I didn’t have a colour printer (or a helper). I love how they turned out and hope to use them for years to come. I wish I could upload a picture! I’m curious if you have any suggestions on how to store them. Do you use a cardboard box? Something with dividers? Thank you for the wonderful diy project. It must have taken some time to create!

They are gorgeous aren’t they! We stored them in a cardboard box in the top of the cupboard. yes, it took a bit of brain power to work out how to make everything fit together 😀 I am planning a star in the same box type idea for 2017. 😉
Do pop on over to my fb page to share a pic! would love to see it 😀

Hi! I love your printable boxes! I started using them last year and my kids loved them so much we are using them again! These have definitely already become a tradition in our house. I actually just started a blog a few weeks ago and linked to this in one of my first posts! If you want to check it out here is the link!

[…] This boxes advent calendar can be done with kids that are fairly young, the only skills they need are cutting, folding and gluing. And because the boxes are bigger than usual, it is possible to fit in many chocolates (for larger families) or even small gifts. You will find the full instructions here. […]